Truth is stranger than fiction... or is it?

Today  as  a guest  blogger I have requested the services of True Crime Expert and Bestselling Crime Writer Douglas Skelton. He has been researching a crime that has puzzled many  experts  over the years,  a vile murder that  remains unsolved. Then he contacted me with a innovative way of solving it, maybe.......

Douglas writes today on Murder is Everywhere...

In the mid-1920s, a New York lawyer was murdered while on a pleasure cruise.

                            
                   The SS Naughty Nigel might have looked a little, but not exactly, like this.

The case has remained one of the most baffling maritime mysteries of the 20^th Century and it has long been believed that it had remained unsolved because the dead man was hugely unpopular and there was a lack of will to uncover the culprit.

                                       
                                             The victim may, or may not, have looked like this.

Until now.

In early April, four Scottish crime writers took it upon themselves to investigate the case and reveal the person responsible.

They chose the unusual device of a radio drama, presented in a top Glasgow bookstore, to showcase their findings.


                                     
                                           Caro Ramsay on a break in  rehearsal.

Caro Ramsay, who played Letitia Luvibod, the amateur detective who happened to be on board at the time of the murder, told Douglas Skelton: “It was a most perplexing case and one that we were all determined to solve.
                                                
                                                        Letitia Luvibod. 1/2 Miss Marple, 1/2 Bond Girl

“We know Letitia was on board but the case itself does not appear in her literary canon. That puzzled us. Mostly because we all thought a canon was a big gun but also because we felt certain she would’ve solved it.”

                                                         
                                                                 Theresa Talbot does look like this.

                                          Dame Petunia Uppercrust does not look like this at all

Theresa Talbot is a crime writer who played a crime writer in the play – Dame Petunia Uppercrust. The bestselling author of detective fiction featuring the Viscount Ponsonby Pilsbury was one of a number of suspects in the case. She also played Loxie McLovely, a young flapper caught up in the excitement.

The producers said this showed her versatility. And also that she was inexpensive.

Theresa said: “I’d never heard of the case before but I soon became fascinated by it. What we discovered was, to be frank, astonishing. I didn’t play anyone called Frank, though.”



                                                                       

Michael Malone has a small part. So they say.

 Tremble does not look like this.

Michael J. Malone played both Tremble, a gentleman’s gentleman, and Chief Inspector Bumble of the Yard. He said: “Why the solution to this mystery had never been revealed before is the real shocker. I’ve got to say that I found the entire process quite exhausting and I was so stunned by the explanation that I had to lie down in a darkened room with a damp Agatha Christie novel on my forehead.”

                           Bumble in no way resembles this member of the constabulary.

Douglas Skelton played everyone else in the production – Captain Obadiah Trusspot, press baron Piggy Grunter and Irish millionairess Colleen O’Blarney. He was unavailable for comment as he appears to have done himself a mischief.

                                       
                                                The ideal Colleen O'Blarney ( Christine Hendricks)

                                                  
                                                          Colleen is played by Skelton, above.

That the writers were able to present their findings at all was a wonder, as powerful forces were brought into play in order to prevent the facts ever reaching the public.

However,  Douglas Skelton, ever the voice of the truth and seeker of justice, can tell you that the murderer is…

(PUBLISHERS’ NOTE: Before he could complete this article, the Editor of this fine organ was found dead, his pen still in his hand, struck down by a lethal dose of Curryarry, a rare poison found only in the uppermost reaches of Glasgow’s Duke Street. All we can tell you is that the play ‘Carry on Sleuthing: Belayed by Murder’ was presented in Glasgow’s Argyle Street Waterstones on Friday April 8. Its cast has never been seen again…)

Douglas Skelton/ Caro Ramsay In absentia.                                                    01/04/2016